Skill Tomes I'd come to learn were powerful artifacts, capable of bestowing upon people great boons in terms of surviving The Culling. The fact of the matter was that they were a quick, potent, and effective means to gain power. But sometimes, even that was not enough. Although it is pertinent to note that humanity would rather claw their way out of the belly's beast before being digested. Often times, people didn't care about Skills they just fucking survived.
- Notes on the Shattering, Unknown
Congratulations on Surviving your First Encounter of Genesis!
For prevailing over your first encounter of your planet's Genesis you have earned rewards fitting the task! By slaying a Forest Stalker, a foe many times more dangerous than you, your rewards will be appropriately adjusted. As the reward of your very first encounter in this new world, you have been given a fortuitous opportunity! Slaying an Unusual creature brings the quality of your reward up to the Unusual rarity! In addition, your reward becomes malleable allowing you to shape its form without bound!
Please conceptualize your reward.
"Uh." I uttered. "You guys seeing this?"
Ace uncharacteristically fumbled his words, settling for a short and sweet "What the hell?" He was swiping at the air.
"Huh." I did the same, my hand doing nothing but passing through the message and causing a slight rippling effect.
Zych, like me, was riding an adrenaline high. He may have finished reading before I did. "A reward? Are you two seeing this screen floating in front of me or am I finally off my rocker?" He said, eyes darting between us. I noticed his deathgrip on the compound bow.
"I see it." Ace responded, perplexed.
Like fireworks on a starry night, my mind lit up. Stars became constellations and my mind tracked them, finding new conclusions. The earthquakes and thunderstorms and landslides and meteors. The fissure, the jungle, the... massacre. Nothing of it made sense, unless the world was really breaking.
"We should think of a reward." I said slowly, sounding crazy even to myself. "You remember what the very first one said? Right before everything went to shit? Earth has shattered, it's being reborn. Maybe this is how survivors are rewarded."
"Survivors?" Zych almost squeaked.
"The Culling." Ace began, catching Zych's stare. "At least, I think that's what this is. The first message, like Jake said, mentioned it.'
I looked outside. The basement was torn open and slope of rubble led outside to gore and blood. Past that, the metting of cliff rock and verdant jungle. To the back of my house, the jungle expanse, to the front, a deep fissure. My actual eyes hadn't landed on either yet, but staring forward was enough to believe.
Giant floating landmasses hovered in the distance. Massive pieces of orbiting rocks colliding with each other until reaching equilibrium. It looked straight out of a movie, fiction. And yet, it was much too real to be anything but.
Zych and Ace seemed to follow my gaze, realizing together how absurd it all was. The fact it was all reality seemed to compound the fact.
"We need to move." I said suddenly. "We can't stay here."
"What? Why?" Zych said quickly staring outside, more specifically, the blood and bodies. His eyes glazed over a little bit.
"Because of exactly that." Ace explained. He was calm, probably as calm as I looked. The only difference was the fact the might've actually been as he seemed. I was anything but.
"The blood. Its everywhere. Imagine another of those things. Even if we were in a regular jungle something dangerous would smell that. Did any of us recognize any of those creatures?" I looked around, diving into what needed to be done. I checked the pipes, swiping my hand on the duct taped leak. Wet.
"No." Zych said. Now his eyes scanned the jungle.
"There could be something worse." Ace said blandly.
It might've been viable to stay here, if the basement were in tact. Now that it was basically cracked open like a nut and the fact it might attract something much worse we couldn't. We needed to move.
"Backpacks. Upstairs." I moved. They followed. "We'll need supplies."
When I opened the door to my first floor I let out a sigh of relief. It could've been much worse. A whole section of my house had been ripped apart. Half of the kitchen, most of the living room. There was food in the fridge, the entire pantry was nowhere to be found though.
"I still have those hiking backpacks from the trip up to the mountains." I told Zych.
"Bedroom closet?" He asked quickly, his eyes only momentarily alighting on the wreckage.
"With all the other junk, yeah." I responded. He moved into the only other door besides the bathroom wordlessly.
"Anything in the fridge up here?" Ace asked me, though he was already heading for it.
"Frozen food. I don't think I have anything that might keep." I scratched my head. "If I had my pantry." I trailed off, staring blankly at the gap in my house. Jungle greeted me, too thick to make out anything.
"Stay out of view." Ace said, noticing me staring. "Something might be staring back."
I ducked away quickly, realizing he was right. "Christ. Sorry."
I went through my cupboards. I had a few waterflasks that kept the temperature as good as the best. Other than that, there was nothing worth taking. I doubted plates or bowls would be useful.
"Got the backpacks." Zych announced, coming through the door.
They were all the same and within moments we all donned them. I handed them each a waterflask. They were bulky things but they afforded us portable water so they were invaluable. I hadn't noticed it downstairs, but it had become uncomfortably warm. Humid even. Even better we had water with us.
"Try the sink. Water's still running." I gestured. The sink was still wet from my washing dished earlier.
Ace squeaked the knob once, twice. Water gushed out in a smooth stream. "Thank god." He said, unscrewing his flask and filling it up with gurgling water.
We all followed suit.
Quickly heading downstairs we retrieved our weapons. Zych had never let go of his bow but I had left a sword and Ace had left both bat and shield. The only thing I took from the basement was some food from the fridge, including a half eaten burrito, the duct tape, and some extra knives.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Conversation was light, each of us mulling what the fuck had just happened to us. I thought I had covered what we'd need, but then Zych had started taking my blankets.
He noticed our looks at him. "It'll get cold, trust me." Ace and I shared a look, but if anyone would know, it'd be Zych. "And grab extra clothes. As much as you can afford lugging around." He seemed somber, reminscient. I gave him a look and he threw me a thumbs up.
We stuffed our bags with blankets too. Clothes as he directed.
"We're gonna need more food somehow." Ace finally brought up. "This won't last us the day." He frowned.
"I could probably shoot down a bunny or something." Zych said.
"I doubt a bunny is gonna survive out there after that shitshow." I grimaced.
"Ideas, guys." Ace scolded. "What do we got?"
I frowned, creasing my forehead and trying to get my bearings. It was lucky that my house could serve as a reference for my mental map, but I had no idea how that would help us.
"We could try any other houses. Look for survivors, loot the place if not." I suggested carefully.
"You want to steal?" Ace responded cooly.
"We might not have a choice." Zych tried explaining the idea immediately.
"Good."
We blinked. Zych and I. Ace, the very same captain of the basketball team, model student, and student councilman? I mean, we hadn't been seeing each other on a daily basis as we used to since college began, but there was no way he had changed so much? He would never let us get away with something like that normally.
He sighed catching our stares. "Okay, I'm not this goody-two-shoes you guys make me out to be, alright?" He became a little more serious but allowed a small smile. "Besides it's the end of the fucking world."
"Never thought I'd see the day." Zych said in awe. Ace didn't often cuss so freely, nor did he advocate crime.
"Neither did I." I concurred. My head swung to the jungle behind my house, looking through the gap in my wall. "Most of my neighborhood is just gone. No wreckage, no trace. We can try seeing the other side of the house though. We haven't gotten a good look at everything."
"We need to peek outside." Ace agreed.
"Hold on, hold on." Zych put up a hand. "Our rewards remember? When did that screen even leave?" He said confused and perplexed.
I tilted my head. When did it leave? We had been so caught up in our reality we had forgotten about it. Ace similarly was frowning in thought. Where did it go? What did it say again-
Congratulations on Surviving your First Encounter of Genesis!
For prevailing over your first encounter of your planet's Genesis you have earned rewards fitting the task! By slaying a Forest Stalker, a foe many times more dangerous than you, your rewards will be appropriately adjusted. As the reward of your very first encounter in this new world, you have been given a fortuitous opportunity! Slaying an Unusual creature brings the quality of your reward up to the Unusual rarity! In addition, your reward becomes malleable allowing you to shape its form without bound!
Please conceptualize your reward.
Nearly in tandem, we all stepped back surprised.
I, and they presumably, stood reading. Rereading, in my case. Was it true? Now that we actually had a moment to ponder it, we were all actually considering its words, despite the absurdity of the strange screen. A short flight of fancy skipped through my mind, of magic and power. Of awe and miracle. My imagination faded for a split second, making way for memory. The memory of a man I'd wish anything for.
"If I could save everyone, Jake. If I could've saved one more person. I'd have done it all over again." The man was older with a kind smile hiding pain only I thought I could see. I didn't even think he knew it himself.
"No one can save everyone." I muttered, tears in my eyes. "I want you back."
He looked at me humorously. "I'm right here."
"All of you, Dad." I stared at his legs, or rather where they would've been.
The memory faded away, oddly vivid. That was during the last few weeks of my father's life. I didn't often think of the man, I tried not to. But when I inevitably did, it was always with warmth, no matter how he was. He was always the man behind my sense of wonder and awe. He was a good man. Something despite it all, I couldn't really stop myself from aspiring to be.
For a moment, just a moment, I wished for something fantastical. Something absurd and wonderful and awe-inspiring. It was a fanciful daydream, only seconds or minutes. One where I could face fantastical dragons, or create beautiful things. Plumes of fire, works of earth, hurricanes and typhoons, tidal waves and whirlpools. Giving life to the inanimate, life to the injured or dying. To be two places at once, or find anything within reach. Or, or-
Something pulled on my ideas, telling me they were impossible but also not. It was as if my imagination was told it could be real. But more, it told it what it could not be, and the latter was much. And so my mind picked only one, but then even that was impossible. Then it seemed everything was impossible. My mind was as if a cage, only one with glass windows able to see everything that could've been. A tragedy, I was heartbroken, hopeful, amazed and disappointed all in a single second.
I focused instead on the potential for greatness. Could I at least have that, if I didn't already? Of course, I didn't. But was it possible to obtain the means?
Acceptance broke me out of my reverie. I stumbled on my feet, looking around baffled.
"What just happened?"
"Woah."
"Holy fuck."
I stared at my two friends. We stared at each other. Ace had stepped back into a lean against a wall. Zych had fell into a sitting position on the couch armrest. I had nearly fallen over.
Then Zych reached into the air and pulled a book out of the air. His eyes bulged and he stared at what was in his hands. I thought for a moment I spied symbols on its cover, but they shifted before I could really get a focus on them.
He looked at us. "Holy... guys reach through the screen and grab your reward." He gushed.
Ace was next and he pulled out a sword. It glimmered with runes bright and blue, but then as if my eyes were playing tricks on me they faded the next moment. A pristine sword. He left the bat on the floor. Then, I realized I was so caught up in the glowing runes I had disregarded the fact he had pulled a fucking sword out of the air.
I reached through, not even sure I ever chose a reward.
My hand came away from the rippling pond-like surface with a book. It was heavy and could've more likely been described as a tome. It weighed on my arms and then when I focused on the item itself rather than its weight, I realized it too, was shifting with symbols. Arcane. The words tapped my mind like a foreign thought, or perhaps one ancestral and primordial. It was truth, some very primitive part of my soul knew it. Some part of my soul I never knew until now.
I held magic.
Skill Tome: [Magical Instinct] (Unusual)
A book that imbues the user with the knowledge of the contained skill. [Magical Instinct] allows the user instinctual knowledge on the factors conducive to great magical applications. Whether wizard, sorcerer, warlock, magician, or any other magical practitioner; magic is everchanging. Instinct and intuition are as much a part of great works of fantasm as logic, practice, and theory.
"What, did you guys ask for reading material?" Ace looked at us, but I doubted he missed the oddity of said reading material.
"A screen popped up." I told him. "It's magic. It says it's a Skill Tome." I marveled at the book, tracing the symbols that outlined its spine. They were rough and rigid, and somehow fluid.
"Same here." Zych piped up. "What's yours for, Jake?"
"[Magical Instinct]. It says it'll give me magical intuition and instinct." I answered. "Yours?"
"[Shadow Magic]. But its a technique of it, not necessarily the entire thing. More like a-" Zych began.
"A spell?" Ace cut in. He seemed floored. "Magic is real? Are guys even fully grasping what you're talking about? We just pulled things from the air. From an invisible screen only we can see!"
We blinked at him. I stared outside. I was just as amazed, but I had hours under a pool table to come to terms. "Is it the craziest thing to happen today, you think?"
"No more than thirty minutes ago we almost died." Zych added. He looked at us. "I think it's best if we open up our minds right now. Whatever the hell is gonna happen, we have to be ready to come to terms with it immediately."
"You did just pepper spray a Forest Stalker in the face." I said to him. He looked between us, still slightly baffled. "Whatever the hell that is. Oh, and I owe you for making fun of you for that little gun of yours. Probably saved all of our asses."
Ace breathed out. His face became more controlled as he found us smirking at him. "The sword I got." He segued. "It's like training wheels. It's gonna teach me."
"What's it called? You got a screen too right?" Zych said curiously.
"[Sword of the Survivor]." He answered us, regarding the weapon in his hand. It glinted faintly when a beam of sunlight from outside touched its blade.
Zych whistled. "That's pretty epic."
"Survivor implies people around him die." I pointed out dully.
"There likely already have been." Ace said to both of us, reminding us exactly of our predicament. "You two need to read those and we need to go. The blood outside remember?"
I stared at the book in my hand. "This entire thing? There's no way-"
Zych's book crumbled in his hands. His eyes glowed faintly, or did they darken? They glowed with shadows, if such a thing were ever possible. And the man took a deep breath and looked right at me, eyes his normal hazel again.
He stared at me. "Open yours, Jake."
And then I did.